Dr. Gary Smith of the National Children’s Hospital published a paper recently in the journal, Pediatrics. Smith is calling on the hot dog to be redesigned.
In the world of nannyism, is nothing sacred anymore? It’s one thing to want to get rid of freedom, big cars, capitalism and choice, except of course for abortion. But going after the lowly hot dog is definitely crossing the line.
According to Smith it’s easy for small children to choke while eating a wiener that he described as the perfect plug for a child’s airway. He told the Toronto Star that other foods such as grapes and popcorn are capable of choking small children but hot dogs are different. They are man-made and could easily be redesigned. Popcorn is not man-made? This guy must have a popcorn tree growing in his back yard. Looks like he just has a thing for hot dogs.
No doubt the good doctor would sleep better at night if ball parks all across North American would slice the hot dog up, throw the slices on a paper plate with a few small potatoes, call it Medallions of Wiener and charge $21.99 for it. But it ain’t gonna happen. If that’s what people wanted, ball parks would be doing it already. People eat hot dogs, not because of their nutritional value, or the high quality meat that they contain or their exceptional taste. People eat hot dogs because of their shape. And they’re fun to eat.
It is trite to say that any child that is young enough and small enough to choke on a frankfurter is too young to buy or cook one themselves. They are given the hot dogs by their parents, guardians or caregivers. The adults who feed hot dogs to children should be educated in the dangers of giving small children the tubular hunk of meat that they can easily choke on. It’s not that difficult a concept to comprehend. On this point Smith gets really ridiculous. He is quoted in the Star as saying, “Just telling people to be careful or blaming the parents is an uninformed approach”.
An “uninformed approach”. Presumably, many parents and caregivers give their kids hot dogs without thinking about the possibility of choking because that fact never crossed their minds. Once they are made aware of it, it would be a simple matter for them to slice the wiener into smaller chunks so the child will not choke. But Smith seems to think that parents are just too dumb to grasp this fact that seems logical and right to the layman when the possibility of choking is pointed out. But these lowly bottom feeding parents can’t be trusted to look after their children. So the hot dog must be redesigned, which effectively means, abolished.
There are thousands upon thousands of fine dining establishments around the world serving all different kinds of foods. If these restaurants have only one thing in common it’s that none of them serve hot dogs. Either these successful restaurateurs are as dumb as Smith thinks everyone is or they understand that people only eat hot dogs at certain places because of their shape. If a hot dog was made into any other shape, it wouldn’t be a hot dog.
If manufacturers go for this nonsense, then what will be next? Popcorn, grapes, hard candies and everything else that is capable of choking a small child will have to be abolished. Remember, parents are just too stupid to be trusted to properly feed and take care of their children.
Disregard this nonsense. Save the hot dog!!!
